Today we welcome Sally Brandle to Meeting the Authors as we travel to the Seattle, Washington area to learn how herd animals, Pink Panther, a lake view, and a twenty year sales career come together to create the prescription for Sally’s life as an author. Check your teeth in the mirror and let’s go …
Tell us a bit about yourself.
You’ll find me as the crow flies, or gelding trots (in deference to my 29 year old trail riding pal), about 25 miles south of Seattle—shackled to a laptop, pounding until the wee hours-or the crack of 2 PM ish. I’m one of those horribly unpopular early risers.
In which genre do you write?
Romance in the sweet heat, clean (without intimate scenes), double shot of suspense variety. Not quite a six-pack of Red Bull, but I’ve kept unsuspecting readers turning pages past their beddy bye time. No gratuitous violence, but the villains get their just desserts, and as a former pastry enabler, I’m not referring to palmiers.
How many published books do you have?
Two so far. The Hitman’s Mistake opens the six-book Love Thrives in Emma Springs series. Book 2, Torn by Vengeance, released May 22nd. Book 3, The Targeted Pawn, will release on March 18, 2020.
What would you choose as your mascot, spirit animal, or avatar and why?
I’m definitely on the equine end of the spectrum. Totally a herd animal, which is odd for a writer. I collect friends (if you believe one of them). I’m happiest staying in touch with past coworkers, neighbors, crafters, and being the facilitator for a barn troll support group. A former boyfriend (heavy on the former, as I’ve been happily married for 31 years) once told me when I was angry he could see my ears pin. In all fairness, the dude tried my patience. My horse would’ve kicked him.
What does your ideal writing space look like?
Clean. Organized. Oh, wait, that would be a fantasy. I’m blessed to live on a lake and view flowers, cormorants, eagles, and osprey. Intersperse jet-skis and boats during summer days and you get the idea of my suburban oasis.
What are you currently reading?
The Invention of Wings
What do you do when not writing or marketing your books?
I trail ride my horsey buddy, Lance, work in my yard/garden battling shot weed, dandelions, and grass, and watch a bit of television. I grew up running home to catch episodes of “Dark Shadows”. My oldest son introduced us to “What We Do in the Shadows.” We’re enjoying the series, the movie I could’ve skipped. I’m not really a vampire type, but the werewolves vs. vampires scene on top of the building in the second or third episode had us snorting. The humor’s a bit dark-go figure.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve done or experienced to help create a scene or plot?
I worked for several decades in sales. Part of my success came from asking questions before I struck, er, I mean suggested a product. Researching specific plot points required I phone a weather forecaster in Texas, a Duck’s Unlimited representative in Montana, a railroad engineer in Oregon, and a few more. They provided expert, quirky, and unique information. I’d like to officially thank them here. Thank you!
What is the most amusing, crazy or inspiring thing that has ever happened to you?
My real name’s on the wall at a local museum for volunteer recognition. The wonderful artists, volunteers, and wealthy supporters I met over a twenty year timespan appear in a book I’ve drafted. An interesting tidbit is that the people who had lots of money, but had to work for it, were down to earth. The ones born with bucks, or trying to infer they had (newly acquired) mega bucks, rated high on the arseometer scale. IMHO
You are about to speak publicly to a group and read from your latest book. What song do you listen to before speaking? Or, what do you do to prepare yourself?
Spending twenty years in sales and as a museum volunteer prepped me for public speaking. I do check my teeth in the mirror. If there’s spinach within twenty feet, it’ll seek out my incisors.
What do you miss about being a kid?
Being able to jump onto the back of a horse without a mounting block. That’s about it. I live a charmed adult life and try to share our home and what I’ve got with friends. We’ve had 14 exchange students, along with raising our own two sons. I relived childhood through them umpteen times and I have a few scars as proof.
If you were trapped in a cartoon world from your childhood, which one would you choose and why?
The Pink Panther. I want to tag along behind the cool, calm, feline. I lived in a sorority house in college. Saturday mornings my house mother would join me at 8 AM in a quiet living room to watch the show. We were the only ones awake.
What’s the last movie you watched and why did you choose to watch it?
We watched Castles in the Sky, about an Englishman inventing radar. Hubby and I like to be entertained while we learn. We need to see Endgame on the big screen soon, before we hear every freakin’ character’s final lines.
Which of your personality traits has been most useful and why?
Curiosity pushes me to explore intricacies of settings, careers, and personalities, etc. Reviewers often note that my attention to detail drops them into the story. Hopefully they land on their feet, because there’s a bad guy lurking somewhere…
Tell us about your most recent book.
My second book, Torn by Vengeance, resonates with me personally, as I finally felt comfortable telling an uncomfortable episode I experienced in the 1970’s. At fourteen or fifteen years old, a friend and I jumped aboard a jet boat with some older guys we’d just met at the local cruising hot spot-an island in the middle of a wide, polluted river.
When they cut the engine far from shore, they had other plans beside a boat ride on a hot day. Our bad experience ended without us getting physically hurt, and I kept that tone when I wrote it into Vengeance. Decades later I can still recall the shock and then moments of fear. I upped the ramifications in the story when my heroine and the creepy boat driver she encountered in her past, meet again ten years later.
I’m seeing positive reactions by romantic suspense readers of clean romantic suspense stories, and I’m proud to publish in that genre. If you’re interested in a story with a tenacious heroine, sizzling attraction, and a shadowy villain with a grudge, then I hope you’ll enjoy Torn by Vengeance.
Thanks for joining us on Meeting the authors Sally! It was great learning about the chemistry that creates your writing life! – Camilla
Torn by Vengeance
Look over your shoulder, he’s watching.
Corrin Patten is solidly on a path to make partner in a prestigious Seattle law firm when an anonymous threat from her past turns deadly. She can handle circumstances necessitating a temporary move to the backwater town of Emma Springs, but its charming physician is another matter, as she’s issued a permanent moratorium on men.
Dr. Kyle Werner revels in trust from patients he regularly treats in a community he’s never wished to leave. Yet, Emma Springs lacks one thing, a woman to share his perfectly bucolic life. He’s read about pheromone attraction, but never experienced desire until meeting Corrin. They make an unbeatable team, but convincing her that his interest is sincere while they dissect layers of deceit requires the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel. Can they defeat the wealthy stalker bent on mistaken revenge against Corrin and destruction of the peaceful Montana setting? If you thrive on tenacious heroines, sizzling attraction, and a shadowy villain with a grudge, you’ll love this prescription for thrills.
Watch for The Targeted Pawn, Rane and Elon’s story of smoldering romance, calculating villains, and rescued animals featured in another escape to Emma Springs.
Where to Buy Torn by Vengeance:
Series title: Love Thrives in Emma Springs
Amazon USA: https://amzn.to/2WR6piF
Amazon AU: https://amzn.to/2InlynO
Amazon EU: https://amzn.to/2WLte7f
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100012840931763
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sallybrandle
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sallybrandle/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/sallybrandle/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18116238.Sally_Brandle
Sally’s Blog link: https://smpauthors.wordpress.com/author/sallygfrog/
Website: https://www.sallybrandle.com
Tome Tender 5 Star Review excerpt:
“From the start, feel the darkness of well-aged evil, as the suspense builds somewhere just out of our view. Then feel the lightness of that tentative dance of romance as two people find that special attraction, tiptoeing around the obvious …..” https://tometender.blogspot.com/2019/04/torn-by-vengeance-by-sally-brandle-love.html
Also available: The Hitman’s Mistake opens the six-book Love Thrives in Emma Springs series.
Book 1 The Hitman’s Mistake: https://amzn.to/2Koe1HA
Book 2 Torn by Vengeance: https://amzn.to/2IoRFU9
If it feels right and you have the time (and you enjoy the interview) please like or comment or share it. The nature of the online world … the more eyes that see it the more it will spread and benefit the author and the website! Thank you!
And if it feels the thing to do and you are inspired to do so, I would be deeply grateful if you’d like to “Buy Me a Coffee” … Camilla – Host of Meeting the Authors …
